With all that on the table, it’s pretty normal that any current Android user, would want to get the Android 4.0 update, while HTC had been quiet on its update schedule since ICS was revealed.

Well, the company has now confirmed its upgrade plans on the company’s Facebook page. Obviously HTC’s latest handsets will be getting the upgrade, with the HTC Vivid, HTC Rezound and the HTC Sensation, Sensation XL and Sensation XE all getting Ice Cream Sandwich in early 2012. The HTC EVO 3D, HTC EVO Design 4G and HTC Amaze 4G are also getting ICS. HTC will continue to assess its current line for upgradability, so don’t despair if your device isn’t included in this first wave of upgrades.

There is also no mention of any of the company’s tablets, like the Flyer or the Jetsream yet.

You’ve recently got a shiny new HTC Sensation or Sensation 4G and there goes HTC tweaking it and releasing the Sensation XE. Well, you can actually convert the Sensation (4G) to a Sensation XE by investing half an hour of your time, and flexing your rooting skills. The hardware in the two handsets is essentially the same, as we’ve seen in our initial coverage, the XE simply has the same dual-core processor running at its default 1.5GHz speed (against 1.2GHz for the original), includes a custom Beats by Dr. Dre sound profile and a bigger battery.

You can get the improvements by installing a custom ROM, Android Revolution HD, for the Sensation, which among other things, allows the processor to run at 1.51GHz as a default, includes the Beats audio profile and a tweaked Adreno 200 graphics configuration to boot. Only thing missing is the bigger battery, but you can grab a tried and test 1900mAh Anker one from Amazon US or Amazon UK.

A word to the wise here, rooting your smartphone is risky, you could end up with a dead device and/or invalidate your warranty. Use the instructions below at your own risk.

Upgrading your Sensation or Sensation 4G to a Sensation XE involves, three steps. First, you must unlock the bootloader (from S-ON to S-OFF) so that you can install custom ROMs. Then, you have to install ClockworkMod recovery, which you will use to install custom ROMs, and finally, flash the Android Revolution HD ROM. Charge your Sensation and head after the break for the full instructions.continue reading

HTC has just detailed out the process for unlocking the bootloaders on its devices via its Facebook page. Unfortunately the company has also taken a step back from its initial unannouncement a few months back that it will stop locking bootloaders on future devices.

To unlock a phone the owner must register for an account through a web tool (coming later this month) and apparently waive liability if anything goes wrong as a result of having an unlocked phone. We are not sure here whether you lose your complete warranty, though it would make sense that although you can screw-up the software and/or brick the phone, hardware should still be covered — announcement says “may void all or parts of your warranty”.

Next step involves using the Android SDK on a computer with the device connected to get a “device identifier token” which you then use in the web tool to receive your unlocking key via email.

The HTC Sensation (global version) will be the first to receive an update, which will enable the unlocking process later this month, followed by the HTC Sensation on T-Mobile and the HTC EVO 3D.continue reading